Community center placed under fire watch

Bauer Drive facility does not have sprinklers, smoke detectors, but is used as overflow shelter

The county fire marshal's office says it will allow Bauer Drive Community Center to continue functioning as a temporary overnight homeless shelter despite its lack of a sprinkler system and smoke detectors.

Mary Anderson, a Montgomery County spokeswoman, said the fire marshal placed the Aspen Hill center under a fire watch last week, meaning that at least one person must be awake at all times and have a cell phone because the building lacks those safety features.

The county has had to open overflow shelters at facilities like Bauer Drive because its shelters are at capacity. The Bauer Drive Community Center has been functioning as an overnight shelter for homeless men since Dec. 30, said Sharan London, executive director of the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless, which runs the overflow facility.

Robin Riley, a division chief for the county's Department of Recreation, said the fire watch order came Thursday after a fire inspector visited the community center to determine whether the social hall could increase its recreational/social capacity from 99 to 125 people. While the inspection was taking place someone mentioned that the facility was also being used as an overnight shelter, she said.

The inspector called an emergency meeting that afternoon with staff from the county's Department of Health and Human Services, the Coalition for the Homeless, the Department of Recreation and Bauer Drive.

Riley said a decision was made to allow the center to continue to operate until the overflow season is over March 31 as long as the fire watch order is obeyed.

Riley said she thinks this is the first time the community center has been used as an overflow shelter.

The community center does not have fire sprinklers and smoke detectors because the building "was built before these codes were even in place," she said.

She said Bauer Drive and seven other community centers are being studied for renovations, but that other facilities, such as Ross Body Community Center in Sandy Spring and Good Hope Community Center in Burtonsville, are at the front of the line because they are older and more in need of improvements.

She said Bauer Drive will not get a sprinkler system and smoke detectors until it is renovated.

For now, Bauer Drive is allowed to have up to 50 homeless men in its gymnasium each night.

The men arrive by bus between 10:30 and 11 p.m., after the center closes for regular business at 10 p.m.

The men leave by 7 a.m., two hours before the community center opens each day.

London said her organization had already had at least two staff member with cell phones awake at all times, but she is "happy" to continue to obey the fire marshal's orders.

"We are just grateful that the county makes accommodations for the greater need in the winter," she said. "It's better than having people sleep outside."